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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Cassie Compton [From the Archives] · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

• 0:46
  Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness, invite
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Talkab Catherine look into the disappearance of Patty Tompson in
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: the city of Stuttgard, Arkansaw about ten years ago.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Take on the.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Evening of Sunday, September fourteenth, twenty fourteen, fifteen year old
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  Speaker 2: Cassie K. Compton went out for a pack of cigarettes
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: down the road from her house in Stuttgart, Arkansas and
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: never came home.
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  Speaker 3: At least that's the official story.
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  Speaker 2: This is one of those Arkansas cold cases that have
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: become legendary, one of those stories that had been covered
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: tons of times, and yet almost ten years later, we
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: have no arrests and no answers. We do know a
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: few things for sure. Cassie had been spending the weekend
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: with a male friend of hers named Hunter. They went
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: with his family to an auto demolition Derby and de Witt,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: which is about forty miles away. They had a great
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: time hanging out, and then Cassie went back to Hunter's
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: house and slept there on Saturday night. Tracy Snyder, Hunter's mother,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: has said that this was not out of the ordinary.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: In fact, Cassie spent a lot of time at their
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: house because Tracy said things were chaotic at Cassie's house.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Tracy said that her house had become a sort of
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: refuge for Cassie. Hunter drove Cassie home on Sunday evening.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Shortly after that, Cassie texted Hunter to say she was
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: going out to get some cigarettes. Then Cassie, who was
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: described in her missing posters as petite, around five foot three,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: weighing around one hundred pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: apparently walked down the road and never came back. I
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: have found a lot of new information about a murder
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: for higher plot A man posing as a woman, sex
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: crimes and cover ups that made me see the police's
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: main person of interest.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: In a whole new light.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: What really happened to Cassie Compton and what was she
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: running from at home?
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  Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: seven four four, six one four or five. That's six
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: seven eight seven four four six, one four or five.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Line. So we need to take
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: a step back to understand what was going on in
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Cassie Compton's life. Cassie k Compton was born in Oklahoma.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: After her mother, Judy Compton Kimsey, was divorced from Cassie's father,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Roy in two thousand, Cassie and her mother moved from
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Oklahoma back to Arkansas. And there's no way to sugarcoat this.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Both Cassie's mother, Judy and her father Roy were registered
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: sex offenders, though Judy's name had been removed from that
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: list after fifteen years of good behavior. We're going to
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: get more into those charges later, but for now we'll
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: say that Roy was convicted of inappropriate sexual contact with
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: a miner, lud acts with a child, and indecent proposals
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: to a miner back in Oklahoma. According to multiple sources,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: that miner was Judy's older daughter from her previous marriage,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: so his own stepdaughter, Roy was sentenced to twenty three
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: years in prison for that abuse. In Stuttgart, Cassie was
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: homeschooled and working to get her ged. Her friend said
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: she was kind and funny, except when she was troubled,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: which had become a little more frequent in the time
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: period before she disappeared. Her friend said when she was
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: troubled she could get a little quiet. There was someone
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: else in the home, Judy's fiance, twenty four year old
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Brandon Lee Rhodes. Now a lot of people pointed out
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: that the age difference between Brandon and Cassie was actually
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: less than it was between Brandon and Judy, who.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Was forty two.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: As we said that weekend, Cassie had been spending time
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: with Hunter Snyder and his family. On Saturday, September thirteenth,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Hunter's mom, Tracy, said her son had picked Cassie up
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: at her house at around one pm.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: That night.
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  Speaker 2: They all went out to the auto Derby. They had
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: fun and then Cassie spent the night at the Snyder house.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: The next day, September fourteenth, Cassie hung out at Hunter's.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: They had brunch with his family, then later Hunter drove
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Cassie home. Hunter and Cassie left his house at around
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: six oh five pm. Her house was around a fifteen
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: or twenty minute drive away, so that would put them
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: there at Cassie's house between six twenty and six twenty
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: five pm. According to Tracy, when Hunter and Cassie pulled
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: up to the house and Cassie got out of the car,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Hunter said that he saw Brandon Rhodes outside, but he
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: said he did not see Brandon speak to Cassie. The
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: last thing he saw was Cassie walking up the driveway
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: straight into the house. Hunter got home at around six
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: forty five pm. According to his mom, Cassie sent a
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: text to Hunter at around seven or seven fifteen pm
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: saying she was going out.
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  Speaker 3: To get a pack of cigarettes.
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  Speaker 2: That was the last text that was ever sent from
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Cassie's phone. Judy, who was on disability and sometimes took
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: pain medications, later said when Cassie came home she was
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: sick in her bedroom, which was in the back of
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: the house. She said she heard Cassie moving around and
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: said hey, baby girl to Cassie through the door, but
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Judy said she didn't actually ever see Cassie. Brandon told
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: police Cassie was only at the house for about five
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: minutes before going out again. When she walked out the door,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Cassie apparently had her black LG smartphone with her, but
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: no charger for the phone. Hunter's mom, Tracy, said she
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: got three calls from Brandon that night. On the first call,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: at nine to fourteen PM, said, Brandon asked if Cassie
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: was still there, I guess, meaning still with them. Now,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: this is weird because Hunter said clearly Brandon saw Cassie
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: when they pulled up to that house. Also, both Brandon
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: and Judy told investigators that they had seen or at
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: least heard Cassie at home. Hunter lived kind of far
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: out it was not walkable, so why would Brandon be
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: asking if she was still with them when he knew
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Cassie had been dropped off. Tracy said she told Brandon
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: to call the police, and after he'd called back a
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: couple times, Brandon told her that he had done that.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Now Brandon did not have her driver's license, so he
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: had a bike that he would ride around everywhere. He
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: told Tracy that he'd ridden his bike to the police
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: station to report Cassie missing, but he said police told
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: him he had to wait seventy two hours. Tracy called
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: the police the next morning. She said that she talked
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: to a detective and they told her that was not true.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: They said no one had made a police report the
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: night before. On that next morning, which would be Monday,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: September fifteenth, Judy saw that Cassie was not in her bedroom.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: She started texting and calling Cassie, but got no response
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: and the calls went straight to voicemail. Judy called Cassie's friends,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: but no one had seen her, so Judy called the police. Eventually,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: through a Foyer request, the Stuttgart Police did release the
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: original incident report. Judy's name is on it, so it
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: can be confirmed Judy reported Cassie missing on Monday, September
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: fifteenth at nine fifty two am. Brandon's name was not
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: on that report. According to that report, Judy told police
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: that Cassie had a possible mental disorder and may have
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: been bipolar. She said Cassie had been prescribed and a
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: depressants in the past, but she said she would flush
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: them because she didn't like taking them. Judy told police
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: if Cassie's mood swings got bad, that Cassie would sometimes
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: go out for a walk. In that report, Judy said
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: that she heard Cassie come in and heard her change
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: and leave from the back bedroom. Judy also gave a
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: description of what Cassie was wearing. She said she had
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: on a blue spaghetti strap top, black and white plaid shorts,
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  Speaker 2: blue and gray cowboy boots with a two to three
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: inch heel, but later Judy clarified She said she based
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: that on the clothes that were missing out of Cassie's closet,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: because again, she was in the bedroom the whole time.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: She never physically saw.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Her daughter, and it didn't take police long to see
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: that Brandon and Judy's stories had a few discrepancies. Brandon
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: and Judy first told investigators that Brandon was cooking in
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: the kitchen when Cassie came home. He said he'd been
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: cooking breakfast for dinner. He said he saw Cassie briefly,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: but that Judy did not see her at all. Later,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: another story came out. Judy told Tina Stores, a private
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: investigator who looked into the case, and some other people
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: that Brandon went out for cigarettes on Sunday night also,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: and that Brandon was gone for quite some time, and
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: that when he did come back, he spent a long time,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: like an hour in the bathroom vomiting. Remember, Brandon did
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: not have a driver's license, but he had been known
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: to take Judy's.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Car in the past, especially if she was sleeping.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: And him going for cigarettes in Judy's car at around
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: the same time Cassie said she was going out for
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: cigarettes seems like a big coincidence. It seems reasonable to
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: wonder could they have gone together or could Cassie have
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: gotten into the car with him. Also, Brandon is saying
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: that he somehow had time to cook dinner, get in
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: his car, buy cigarettes, then ride his bike to the
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: police station to report someone missing, and have a vomiting spell,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: all in the two hour period before nine to fourteen
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: when he called Tracy. In twenty nineteen, Kayla Lafferty, a
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: reporter from KTV Channel seven, did a podcast called Timeline
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: the Disappearance of Cassie Compton, and in that podcast, she
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: talked to a friend of Judy's who said Judy told
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: them that both she and Brandon were given Lie detector
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: tests and that both of them had failed. This friend
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: said Judy told her that she thought she failed her
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Lie detector test because she was taking pain medications at
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: the time. At first, it did seem like police were
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: treating Cassie as a runaway, and they've admitted this publicly.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Stuttgart Police Chief Mark Duke said, quote, you think, all right,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: she's mad, she left, We'll find her, and then it
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: went sideways from there end quote. Police also said on
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: the record they formed this assumption based on what they
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: heard from family members and other people close to Cassie,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: but no one saw Cassie on that road after she
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: left her house.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: She was never seen again in any.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Verified sighting, even though there were a lot of tips
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: called in. People reported seeing her everywhere from Walmart to
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: random highways.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: None of those young women was Cassie.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: On a October third, twenty fifteen, two and a half
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: weeks after Cassie went missing, police took Brandon and Judy's phones. Then,
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: shortly after detectives left their home, a house fire started.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: The small house fire at Brandon and Judy's residence was
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: pretty quickly put out, but the timing was bizarre. By
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: late fall, the investigation seemed stalled. Police were still saying
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: the only official people of interest were Judy and Brandon,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: but some strange things were happening on social media. For
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: one thing, Cassie's personal Facebook page liked the missing page
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: for Cassie, and law enforcement stated that more than one
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: person had access Cassie's personal Facebook page also that fall.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Starting around September twenty fifth, police and the FBI started
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: searching the area that began around the Stuttgard airport. They
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: were looking into reservoirs, riverbanks, under bridges, all kinds of
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: hiding place near Cassie's home. According to the website find
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Cassie Compton, the police were considering the theory that someone
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: could have transported Cassie's remains walking or by bicycle, possibly
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: in pieces. They looked for rolled up rugs or garbage bags,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: but they found nothing. Judy and Brandon started talking to
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: the media. Actually Judy did most of the talking, but
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: when Brandon spoke, he said this.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: She was gone, like I whispering to win that.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: I found his wording a bit strange. How does a
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: fifteen year old vanish into thin air like that? Now
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: this was late summer, so even though sunset was around
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: seven to twelve pm, it would not have been fully
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: dark until half an hour or so later. And yet
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: not one person saw Cassie after she left her house.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: There were a few theories about what could have happened
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: to her. Some people believe she could have been kidnapped,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: either by strangers or by someone she knew, or possibly
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: she was sex trafficked. Maybe going out for cigarettes was
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: code for something, Maybe Cassie had plans to run away,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: or maybe something else happened to Cassie in that house
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: and she never made it past the driveway for other reasons. Then,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: a few weeks after Cassie went missing, Judy and.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: Brandon broke up.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Judy told Channel seven quote, I believe Cassie would come
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: back if she knew he was not in the picture
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: end quote. She mentioned that Cassie and Brandon had not
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: gotten along. After she kicked Brandon out, he started living
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: on the streets. He was arrested for squatting at a
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: property and given a hundred day jail sentence. The Stuttgart
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: police department started working with the FBI and the state Police.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Judy announced one thousand dollars reward for any information that
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: would help lead to her daughter. Then in October, police
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: found something under the Biome Metro Bridge about fifteen miles
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: from Casco on the White River. This was near the
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: place where Cassie's cell phone had last pinned. Police reportedly
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: found objects that included a gatorade bottle, two men's shirts,
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: men's toiletries including shaving cream, folded drapes, a girl's Hugs
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: and Kisses, sweater, a Teddy Bear in two bags. To
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: my knowledge, police have never confirmed if those items belonged
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: to Brandon Roads, but a lot of people thought that
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: the shaving cream might have some significance because Brandon normally
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: had a beard, and when he was arrested a few
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: days after this stuff was found on unrelated charges, he
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: was clean shaven, so by now a lot of people
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: in the community.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Were fixated on Brandon Roads.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Police said the same thing they often say in these investigations,
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: that Brandon and Gudi were people of interest, but no
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: one was arrested a charge, and they said no one
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: could be ruled out, neither Brandon nor Judy have ever
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: been charged in connection with Cassie's disappearance. Over the years,
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Judy's opinion of whether or not Brandon could have been
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: involved seemed to shift, at least publicly. In November of
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, Judy talked to a reporter from ABC Channel
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: seven about her relationship with Brandon. She said Brandon could
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: be controlling. For example, she said he would always pick
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: up the phone and interrupt her when she was talking
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: to law enforcement. Judy also talked about her past and
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: about the incident that led to her being on the
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: sex offender list in Oklahoma. According to court documents, Judy
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: was found guilty in Marshall County, Oklahoma, of permitting abuse
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: or neglect.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: In November of nineteen ninety.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Eight, Judy told the reporter that Roy, her ex husband,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: had assaulted her daughter. She said that she was charged
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: with failure to protect her child and basically forced to
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: take a plead.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Judy told Channel seven.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: My ex husband was messing with my oldest daughter, and
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: I didn't know anything about it. Then my oldest daughter
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: told my mother end quote.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: But I went through.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Those court documents and I saw that not only was
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Judy put on the sex Offender Registry. She was also
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: given a five year suspended sentence in connection with that case.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Yet when she talked with the reporter, she kind of
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: made it sound, in my opinion, like something that happened
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: to her rather than something she was complicit in. I
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: found out even more details about these charges, and this
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: case was dark.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Roy was charged with leude molestation. In this case.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: According to the court records, the child was traumatized and
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: wanted to give video evidence rather than face Roy in court,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: which the court allowed. Roy was given a twenty three
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: year prison sentence according to the records I found. By
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: the way, Roy was in prison when Cassie went missing
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: and still appears to be incarcerated.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: Does this past.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Behavior mean that Judy knew anything about what happened to Cassie. No,
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: But in my opinion, it does show that she appears
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: to be capable of minimizing abuse inside the home, and
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: that worries me. After Cassie disappeared, Judy had to deal
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: with multiple heartbreaks over the years, including one cruel person
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: who actually impersonated Cassie and pretended that she was alive
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: and wanted to talk to Judy.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: I cannot even imagine what that must have been like.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Cassie's disappearance made local and national news, but there were
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: no arrests. In addition to Brandon, because this was a
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: fifteen year old girl, police also looked into other young
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: men who Cassie had been talking to. On September seventh,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, there was a post on Cassie's Facebook page,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: actually her last post, in which she wrote, quote, let's
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: get one thing straight. I was not with Dustin, okay,
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: and she mentions a last name as well, which we're
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: not going to mention. So a lot of people were
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: asking Dustin about this. So underneath her comment he replied
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: and said he and Cassie were never together.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: He was a little older, I think, so.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: I can imagine him getting nervous if a miner went missing. Anyway,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: police apparently followed that lead and ruled Dustin out. Things
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: kept coming back to the home, back to Brandon Rhads.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: One of the things I found most frustrating about this
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: case is that over the years we've heard a lot
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: about Brandon Rhodes, so many rumors, so few concrete backs.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: He continued to get into trouble with the law after
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: splitting from Judy. In twenty fifteen, Brandon was arrested on
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: drug charges, including possession of a controlled substance methamphetamines. After
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: pleading guilty, he was sentenced to two years in prison.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Then a couple of years later, he was arrested again.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: This time it had nothing to do with Cassie Compton.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: On October sixteenth, twenty eighteen, Brandon was stopped by police
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas. They saw that Brandon was driving
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: on a suspended license, so they arrested him.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: The officers searched the.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Car and they found a loaded AR fifteen assault rifle
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: with a red scope and a lot of other tactical gear. Later,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: police determined that that weapon had been reported stolen. They
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: got information that Brandon had been paid several hundred dollars
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: to kill the wife of one of his acquaintances, so
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: they brought Brandon up on capital murder charges. I wanted
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: to understand more about this, so I looked into the
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: court documents. Brandon had a different story. He said he
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: didn't remember anything from the night before. Later he changed
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: his story and said yes, he was in Batesville to
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: follow someone. He said that a man had paid him
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: two hundred dollars to follow around this man's wife, so
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Brandon was out acting as kind of an unofficial private investigator.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Brandon also said he had no idea he had a
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: stolen gun in his truck, but the guy who reported
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: the gun stolen said Brandon was at his residence the
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: night before the next morning, Brandon and the gun were gone,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: so it didn't take Charlock Holmes to figure out who
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: took that weapon. Again, there's been almost nothing reported about
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Brandon's background.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: I wanted to know who he really is.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: So I found buried in a lot of different court
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: documents related to his arrest, the forensic reports that were done,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: and they had a lot of very interesting information. Actually,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: I think we learn a lot more about Brandon Rhodes
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: from these documents than we have in any of the
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: interviews that he's done. According to court documents, Brandon was
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: born in Little Rock. He grew up with his mother, grandmother,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: and younger brother in Greenbrier, Arkansas, but he said they
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: moved around a lot to several different states. He told
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: the Examiner that he had a stepfather in a life
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: as well, who was in a motorcycle gang. Brandon said
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: his stepfather physically and sexually abused him between the ages
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: of seven and nineteen years old. He said that from
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: a young age he was abused. He said he was
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: abused with fists, a board, an electrical cord, He was
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: thrown across the room, and when things got too difficult
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: at home, he would escape to the woods. Sometimes he
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: would sleep outside. He went to school in Mount Vernon
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: and Stuttgart High School, but he was expelled several times
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: for having an explosive temper. He said he stopped going
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: to school in ninth grade and went to work. Brandon
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: said when he was seventeen, he went to meet the
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: man he believed was his biological father, but later a
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: DNA test showed that that man was not his father,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: which I can imagine must have been crushing for him.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: He also said he had been smoking pot around three
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: times a day for as long as he could remember.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: He said he developed a meth habit in high school.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: At first, like a lot of people, he said, he
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: started taking it to keep him awake at work. Brandon
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: worked several different jobs. He worked at lumber one in Stuttgart,
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: but he got fired from that job. Later, he did
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: some landscaping and worked for a company and DeWitt fabricating
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: metal for farming equipment. By twenty eleven, Brandon was on
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: his own. He was living in abandoned houses for a
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: few weeks at a time. That's when he got into
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: a relationship with Judy and he moved in with her
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: and Cassie and Stuttgart. Now, if you look at his
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: old Facebook posts, which have been inactive for a long time,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: this seems to have been a happy time for him.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: At least on social media.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Judy is his cover photo the whole Thing, and he
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: has a post there saying that Judy baptized him.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: In twenty fourteen.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: In this interview with the psychiatrist, Brandon discussed his criminal history.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: He told the Examiner about Judy and Cassie and said, quote,
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I would not be surprised if someone is trying to
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: kill me because they believe I killed her daughter and
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: buried her somewhere. I don't have time to go through
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: the entire case, but the case, by the way, is wild.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Police were trying to figure out which story to believe
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: what was going on here. They found text messages between
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Brandon and the man who allegedly hired him to follow
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: his wife. In those texts, they were discussing the fact
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: that this woman was allegedly cheating on her husband with
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: another man, a love rival. So at first Brandon and
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: the husband talk about beating up the other love rival.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: Then Brandon was.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Apparently planning to plant drugs on this love rival. Later,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Brandon and the husband also talked about just killing the wife.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: The whole time, Brandon was saying he's obsessed with the
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: punisher Frank Castle from the comic books. For those who
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: haven't read it, He's the vigilanti who tortures bad guys
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: and has a very twisted view of dispensing justice. Police
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: interviewed the wife whom Brandon followed. She talked about how
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: her husband had paid someone to stock her, how she'd
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: seen a white truck the type that Brandon drove around.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Police also found evidence that Brandon called this woman and
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: pretended to be a woman, and that in that phone
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: conversation he told her that she was a mother who
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: needed to be taking care of her kids. This gets
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: even deeper. Brandon told police he had gender dysphoria. When
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: they arrested him, he was wearing fake breasts and a
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: sports brath and there are a lot of text messages
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: in these documents where Brandon was talking to this love rival,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: and in these texts he was pretending to be a
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: woman and trying to entice this man into doing some
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: very sexually graphic things. It seems to me from these
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: police interviews that Brandon sees himself as a violent, anti
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: hero vigilante. He also said he was never close to
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: his mother. He later told police he did not like women.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: And yet it's complicated because according to his behavior, it
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: seems like he's also in many ways presenting as a woman.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: The case continued to get more and more bizarre.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Then in early twenty twenty one, there was another very
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: strange incident.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: In early twenty twenty one, a video of a woman
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: on TikTok and other social media started making the rounds.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: This woman had black hair and two black eyes and
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: was in the car with a couple of guys who
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: were rapping.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: The whole time.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: She was just looking forward with this kind of dead stare.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: This woman looked identical to Cassie Compton. People believe this
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: could be her. This brought new life into rumors that
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Cassie could have run away on her own. The video
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: went viral and people started posting about a missing person's
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: case that was solved by TikTok.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: The FBI Little Rock Office.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Confirmed that they were looking into who this mystery woman was,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: but sadly, this was not Cassie. The woman was later
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: identified as Hailey Grace Phillips. She was a young woman
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: from Los Angeles who actually made her own video to
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: say she was not Cassie Compton. She said she'd recently
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: been mugged, that's why she had black eyes, but she
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: was fine and safe.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Another dead end.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Back to twenty nineteen, Kyla Lafferty is doing her podcast
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: called Timeline the Disappearance of Cassie Compton. She ended up
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: interviewing Brandon Rhodes at the Independence County Jail. By the way,
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Kayla was not able to record the interview with Brandon,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: but she did record her thoughts Immediately afterwards, She said
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: she asked Brandon what he thought had happened to Cassie.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: She said Brandon told her that he believed the text
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: that Cassie sent that text to her friend Hunter about
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: cigarettes with some kind of code. He believed that she
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: had been waiting for someone and that she got picked
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: up and never made it out of the driveway. Cayla
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: said that Brandon told her that Judy was sick, and
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: that when Cassie came home from Hunter's house, he said
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: he was in the bedroom with Judy. So now he
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: seemed to be saying that he never saw Cassie. Now,
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: this totally contradicts what Judy has said in the past
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: about Brandon being in the kitchen cooking, and it contradicts
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: what he himself has said in the past. He said
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: he saw Cassie. She came in, she was there for
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: a few minutes, and she left. By the way, that's
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: also a different story than Hunter tells, because remember Hunter
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: said that when he and Cassie pulled up, Brandon was
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: outside and saw Cassie going into the house. Cayla said, quote,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: he was talking about how people think he's a psychopath.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: He asked me what I think makes a psychopath. He
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: was going on and on about how it's pain that
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: creates a psychopath. I then asked him, are you a
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: sociopath or a psychopath?
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: He was like, what, No, But the.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Whole time he was staring me dead in the eye,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: trying to intimidate me into believing he's a psychopath, I
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: think end quote. She also asked him about these very
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: strange murder for higher charges, and he told her a
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: version of what he told the police, that he was
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: paid a few hundred dollars, but that actually he was
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: just posing as a hitman and the reason he was
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: doing that was so that he could work under cover
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: and be sent to prison on purpose, so that he
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: could work on Cassie's case from the inside. Kayla also
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: said Brandon told her that a psychologist had diagnosed him
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: with multiple personality disorder. So, in my opinion, interactions with
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: law enforcement and Brandon show a picture of someone who
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: is clearly disturbed and.
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: Does have some issues.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: But I want to go back to the court documents,
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: and I want to go back to what the trained professional,
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: the forensic examiner found, because the examiner who did a
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: clinical interview with Brandon and found nothing like that, no
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: mental disease or defect, no depression or anxiety. They found
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Brandon was competent to stand trial, No multiple personality disorder
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: or suicidal ideation. They did notice that Brandon's speech was
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: low volume and slow rate, but they said that did
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: not indicate any type of mental deficiency. On the contrary,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: they found he had very good short term and long
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: term memory. Brandon said something to the examiner that I
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: think is very telling. He said, quote, I am a
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: violent person, very volatile, but I know when I can
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: or can't be violent depending on situations. Here at the
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: doctor's office or court is not a situation where you
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: can be violent end quote. To me, this signifies that
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: he understands exactly what was going on.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: So what's next for Cassie's case.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Some people in Judy's family, including her son Chris, have
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: said they still believe that Brandon may have been involved.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: When Judy last talked to media, she said that she
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: no longer believes that Brandon could have harmed Cassie. Judy
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: has said, quote, he looked at her like his daughter,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: you know, and if he did, it would be shocking
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: to me.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: End quote.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: But based on Judy's past some of these patterns, we
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: can deduce that even in the most generous and best
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: case scenario, she is not always the best judge of character.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: And we already know that Brandon's a liar and by
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: his own admissions, has some very disturbing thoughts and complicated feelings.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: About women.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: So now we're left with this suspicious behavior, stories that
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: don't match. But as far as I know, no physical evidence.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Finding Cassie's remains would be a major break in the case.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know how many of y'all remember those topics threads.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: I know the site has been shut down for a
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: long time now, but people still have screenshots from the
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: old days where people were talked talking about rumors on there.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Some people have made the point that Brandon was into
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: prepping and that he.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: Would know where to hide a body. He actually said in.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: His police interview that he was very into prepping and
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: talked about that a lot. Maybe there's a clue there somewhere.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: If Brandon did do something to Cassie, if he did
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: kill her, where would he put her body? How would
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: a prepper handle this situation? Did he use his bike
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: or could he have used Judy's car or another vehicle.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: That we don't know about.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: Brandon, who was always completely denied any involvement in Cassie's disappearance,
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: is now out of prison.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: Brandon seems to paint.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: Himself in his interviews as the victim of circumstances. But
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: we're about to hear about the other side of Brandon Rhodes,
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: this time from one of his victims. As usual, I
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: found the answer I was looking for buried in some
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: otherwise boring court documents that, to my knowledge, no one
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: has ever talked about. In twenty twenty three, a woman
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: asked for an order of protection against Brandon. Now this
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: is public information, but out of respect and concern for
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: this victim, I'm not going to make her name public.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: I'm telling this story because I believe it is very
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: important and potentially very relevant. Here's what she wrote in
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: her own words in twenty twenty three. I'm just going
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: to read an excerpt here, not the whole thing. This
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: victim said that Brandon has tackled her to the floor
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: multiple times, that he has called her names, that he
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: would scream at her, call her a bitch and a
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: cunt and a whore. She said he has sexually assaulted her,
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: that he has put her in a chokehold. She wrote, quote,
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: He's told me about his two people inside his head,
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: chaos and insanity, and has brought them out to meet
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: me and belittle me. Brandon told me when we first
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: got together that has ex abused him and that he
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: was getting in trouble for nothing. None of this was true.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Brandon has major anger issues. He's a time bomb. He
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: was arrested on domestic battery from his previous relationship where
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: he did the same things to her. I am scared
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: for my life if he gets out tomorrow and comes
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: to the apartment. I'm having neck and back and shoulder
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: and down into my arm searing pain.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: From the abuse.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: I can provide documents and photos of bruises. He also
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: forced me to put my Facebook messenger in snapchat on
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: his phone. He has searched me online and paid for it,
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: getting all my info. I am scared to death. When
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: he gets out and finds out I'm doing all this,
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: I'll be dead end quote. The order of protection was granted.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: I have no desire to publicize someone's private life like this,
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: but at the same time, I feel a responsibility to
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: this victim because this man is out there, and if
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: something does happen to this woman, I want the man
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: who's abusing her to know that a massive audience of
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: people know what is going on, and that these lists
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: steners care about what's happening and will report it immediately
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: to law enforcement. Something that does jump out to me
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: immediately when I read this. Other than the sheer horror
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: of this statement is the fact that this woman said
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: something really interesting. She said Brandon forced her to have
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: her social media on his phone, that he stalked her
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: social media, so we know that he's savvy with social media.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: I wonder about that because we know that a few
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: days after Cassie went missing, her Facebook page was liking
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: a page on Facebook. I want to believe that Cassie
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Compton ran away and is somewhere living her best life.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: And maybe she is, but honestly, I don't think that's likely.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Also find myself thinking about that last text, the one
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: that Cassie sent saying she was going out for cigarettes,
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: and wondering whether she really sent it at all. On
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: September fourteenth, twenty fourteen, as the sun went down behind
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: that small house in rural Arkansas. What really happened that night?
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: If you have any information about Cassie Compton, please call
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: the Stuttgart Police Department on eight seven oh sixty seven
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: three one four one four. An alternative number that they've
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: given is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: at one eight hundred eight four three five six seven eight.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me, Catherine
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: Music is contributed by Ben Sale.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: eight seven four four six' one four.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Five school Of humans